Tanzania National Park (Tanapa)

The Tanzania National Park (Tanapa) has announced an incentive for people who will provide confidential information leading the authority to arrest those involved in poaching in the national parks.

Tanapa Chief Executive Officer Allan Kijazi, said this when addressing journalists at the opening of a two-day seminar on motivating domestic tourism in national parks and other attractions.

He said that buyers of animals’ ivory have declared a war by increasing the price of the items, whereby a kg of elephant tusks is sold at USD1000.

The traders, he said, ensure that they get ivories at any cost and by all means.

“At the moment there is a great network among poachers which has declared a war against these national resources and so we are obliged to deal with them. We therefore need close cooperation with all good people in identifying the entire network and they shall be awarded. This business strongly operates in Asian countries particularly in China, Taiwan, India and Japan,” Kijazi said.

However, he asked the journalist to put forward patriotism when writing news, taking the Kenyan case, which he said newsmen write much so as to promote the local tourism industry.

“During a recently mayhem in Zanzibar, in Kenya there were bomb explosions, but journalists didn’t write anything about the blasts. Instead they wrote strongly on the riots in the Isles in order to damage the Tanzanian tourism sector. Tanapa has been making efforts to promote the tourism sector so as to lure more tourists,” he noted.

He added that tourism is an area with a big challenge despite the fact that it contributes much to the national income. Many tourists are expected from foreign countries, a thing he said threatens the growing of the economy.

“When it happens that the tourist friendly countries which we depend on, have their economies affected, then our tourism sector will also be affected as well. Since the number of domestic tourists is still very low. Recently, when the US and UK fell into economic crisis, the tourist sector was highly affected.” he said.

Earlier, Tanapa public relations officer Pascal Shelutete, said there were problems of border conflicts in staked parks and reserves due to the little understanding by people of the exact set boundaries.

“We are going to educating those living near the reserved areas because we still getting problems in these places. So it is a hard job to start educating people on border issues and good neighbourliness,” he said